Which Operating Systems Are Most Valuable to Publishers?

In the third installment of our CTR study, Insights took a look at the marketing value for operating systems.

The first statistic that stood out was that those who use mobile operating systems click on ads more frequently – almost three times as often as desktop operating systems. iOS, (the operating system for the iPad and iPhone) and Android dominate the top spots in our data set. We saw a similar correlation between mobile and regular browsers in the second installment of this series. This could be because mobile users are typically on the go, and the sites they browse are often in a mobile format.

Desktops make up a distinctly different camp in terms of operating systems. Windows, MacOS, and Linux are significantly less valuable than mobile operating systems in terms of ad click rates, although they are clear winners in volume. Windows users beat out all other desktop operating systems both in quantity and in the frequency of ad click rate – in fact all Windows versions rank higher than the remaining desktop operating systems. MacOS captured “second” place with the lowest CTR of all operating systems aside from Linux. In our last study, Opera (the main browser for Linux) had one of the highest CTRs, which is interesting because, according to our data set, Linux users don’t click on ads frequently.

As a publisher, this data can help you monetize your site and ad positioning based on the composition of your traffic. If you see more Windows or Mobile users, perhaps it would be the best choice to place the ad “above the scroll”, or in an area easily viewed by your user base. Understanding the demographics of your traffic can help publishers and advertisers serve their audience with relevant and well placed ads to best meet their intent.